Leaving RHB in drizzle, carrying 28Kg sack weight dried it off tho! Lunch with the skylarks o/looking Whitby abbey in sun. System working as planned altho cant say same for me, hard work today! Passed loads of c2c'ers going East, none my way, bliss!
Early night for a early start with the company of black faced ewes and curlew like birds, the end of a great day.
After an early start, heavy going with plenty of ups and downs. A couple of nav errors due to small scale map, little signage, not calibrating my gps and me being a numpty. These errors are dispropotionally magnified by the weight ...... note to myself. Good Progress till noon when the heavens opened which put me in my bothy bag ( emergency shelter- which i thankfully threw in at the last minute ). I felt the reality hand brake slip as i spent 7 mind numbing hours with a chinese water torture pitter patter relentlessly drumming around me, untill the forecasted break at 7pm. More than a physical challenge!
My new freind says hello and has told me that he would like it if people would stop shooting at me. Yes believe it or not, whilst sheltering last evening for a few minutes, i was a victim of a drive bye shooting! A car drove by some way off, stopped and two shots were fired from a high powered air riffle, as if life isnt hard enough! Good going the other side of the lion inn on old railway, never liked level ground so much! Broke my own rule about always carrying water, ending up dehydrated, thinking about eating raw fishies and grovelling round puddles like some gollum creature.
On course for twelve day finnish albeit through grit and determination, whos idea was this?
Awoke today with the sun pouring through the tent and into my bones which flowed to my brain, forming a little pool of enthusiasm. Whilst finnishing off the hills in the morning, guess who i bumped into on his bike, only chris the barman of the Bay hotel in RHB! Nice to see you chris but you took me back to the night before i left with a pint of guinness in my hand. Ill be after a freebie, next time i see you for the torment you put me through. ;-) Entered african bushman mode across the monotanous see of flatness as unsure of water flowing thru farmers fields. Camped under a squirrels drey who was heard to say on the way to bed, your nutkin mad mate! squirrels dont sit on the fence in yorkshire!
Starting the day well, hydrated and refreshed even enjoying walking up lovely Swaledale in the sun carrying 5 litres of water as there were lead mines ahead. However the relentless uphill took its toll, Passing one mine working after another there was a Tolkienesque Moria look about the place and I became Frodo for the day, feeling the weight of my burden greater as moved closer to Keld my quest. I was tempted to go through the moumtain rather than up it but im afraid of the nasty little orc'sies, so i didnt. Hitting a new low as i spent 45 minutes killing midges in the tent i was boosted by the fact i had acheived the 96 mile half way point. mentally, the top of the hill for me.
Walking through keld, the half way village, i met a chap called steve G. Who told me had completed 15 C2C's, some record in itself and said, if i was to complete my exploit it would be an impressive acheivement, cheers steve you renewed the faith. Some half way stats - Money spent since leaving RHB - £0.00., water from natural sources - 100%, public buildings entered or any other - none, help received - none.
The walk up to the nine standards rigg was a peat boq nightmare and the summit reached in swathes of mist, adding to the mystery of these monumemts, more LOTR analagies here, sorry! The plod dowm to kirby stephen was easy but again i struggled up the high street with all its forbidden pleasures and onward to another late midgy camp.
Are you getting confused yet? I am!
Up to now this blog has been a day behind for security reasons but i am getting confused and no signal half the time doesnt help. So here we are on the 23rd of june and you are live and i am half dead!
I spent most of last night in agony, my stomach is not well, not off but with wind, i know dont laugh but im in bits. Ive realised that ive become closer to nature than i thought and am in close contact with this planets long term carbon cycle. In short co2 reacts in the upper atmoshere and forms a mild sulphuric acid which in turn causes acid rain. The rain falling on limestone dissolves it and becomes and alkali in the form of calcium carbonate which washes to the sea and is used to by sea creatures to make shells, which die and over time become limestone and over we go again. Bored yet. Well heres where i fit in, ive been drinking water loaded with carbon so acid in my body is making co2 causing no end of pain. The acid in the fruit tea and iso powder causes the water to fizz. So i thought lay off that but no, acid is the answer, bringing the co2 out of solution, hence the squeek!
Anyway lovely walking today and not 1 East'er seen all day. The only person ive seen was Harold, a former Belfast, now local man who was a fountain of knowledge and just like me he fizzed, popped and overflowed with information for the best part of an hour. God bless you harold you livened up my day!
Last night was another stop before you drop, no water, little food. Today felt not bad, m6 crossing a milestone. The route from shap and along haweswater was sensorary overload, fresh clean water gushing everywhere! I will never forget the joyful pleasure having water around me as if for the first time, magic! Nice to talk to the last of the summer wine crew - jeff, malc and kieth, who were lunching with coffee and wine and beer after, an approach i will be adopting next! Met also dave, out on a 3 day wild camp, a fellow West'er of 20 years ago, good to see ya there dave and west is best!
A hard but enjoyable day in the hills.
Setting off from above Patterdale in early sun put me on route and lunch half way up helm crag, near Grasmere. From here to the top i made the school boy error of losing my map, oh dear two and a half days to go and no map. All is not lost i have my Gps and i downloaded all the maps to my phone, so hope for sun cus im gonna need the juice!
